This cruise for me was a symbolic restart. The day before I left Canada for Italy, I received my final divorce papers. The last time I sailed on the Norwegian Spirit was on my honeymoon, about 12 years to the day of boarding her this time. Getting onboard was like an ultimate “letting go” for me, new cruise, new memories, fresh start… In the Med (and Italy) of all places 😉

I chose this cruise for the amazing itinerary, that’s the one thing I find NCL does really well. Here was the itinerary for my sailing:

Day 1 – Civitavecchia (Rome) – Embarkation Day

I woke up crazy early again (4:30am) as I still hadn’t got quite acquainted to the time zone in Rome, did my last walk around to Trevi Fountain and had my last coffee (espresso) near Spanish Steps. One thing about being an early riser in Rome is that you have most of these amazing places to yourself. Headed back to the Hotel de Petris, checked out and ordered a cab around 10:30am. Of all the personal research I’ve done, taking a train to Civitavecchia from Rome was actually the most cost effective option. It’s about 80 kilometres outside of Rome, so taxis are horribly expensive. The one way on the express train was €16 per person. Trains are efficient and run on time (in most cases).

Buying tickets at Termini was an experience. I was approached by someone trying to “help” out, however my senses were screaming “don’t trust her” and “watch your bags”, I knew this was some type of scam. I told her “no grazie” several times and then physically kind of body checked her gently out of my way, blocking her from the ticketing kiosk. She got the point then and moved on to another set of tourists. In this situation, it’s best to look like you know what you’re doing, if you have no idea how to buy tickets through the kiosks, just go stand in line at the ticketing counter. With luggage securely in front of me, I purchased my ticket from the ticket kiosk and headed for Civitavecchia.

The train was pretty quick, it’s about an hour journey (90 minutes by car, so the train is faster). Once at the station I’ll give you a heads up. There are no elevators if you are dropped off on one of the centre platforms. Its stairs down into the corridor, then stairs up to exit the station. There are rumours that they are working on this, however everyone else is in the same boat, so cruise passengers I think tend to help each other. I know I did. Once at the station, head into the small convenience store attached to the station and get a ticket for the shuttle bus to the terminal, it was €2 per person, however just ask if they are actually running when you buy and not on a siesta like they were when I arrived. If that’s the case, there are several vans just outside the station touting rides for €5 per person, this was my choice, I was done waiting in the hot sun. Ride to the terminal was quick, just over a mile away, it probably is walkable, maybe 20 minutes walk from the train station, however with luggage I thought it would be too much work in 42C heat haha. Once at the terminal (more like a bus stop), you file into lines for your cruise ship and board another bus to the actual cruise terminal that your ship is docked at (this is free from this point to the ship).

Once at the cruise ship terminal, you walk your bags into the drop off area, then into the check in area. Another quick tip for you is to take a photo of your luggage before you hand it over (I do this for flights as well), if something does wrong and you luggage goes MIA or gets damaged, you can at least provide an exact photo of your luggage and in what condition it was handed over in. As they were already boarding the ship by the time I arrived, the check in line was super quick. Just a note about passports, they do keep them for safe keeping from this point onwards (it was Day 9 when I got mine back), however I always have a photocopy kept on me of my passport (and another photo of my passport on my phone in case that one goes missing), but I could see how this could make some worried, it’s just standard procedure. There she was, the Norwegian Spirit!

Once onboard, the rooms were ready, so I headed up to mine (balcony cabin 9052) to find it filled with goodies. As I am a travel agent (a certified Norwegian Cruise Specialist) and sell quite a bit of Norwegian, my NCL Business Development Manager added some goodies to my file, which are called Partners First perks. I essentially was upgraded to the same benefits as a suite guest and then some. My room was filled will welcome gifts (2 bottles of sparking wine, 1 bottle of red wine, 2 trays of chocolate covered strawberries and a fruit basket) from the Hotel Director, Concierge and Group Services Coordinator. I could totally get used to this! I was slightly regretting not getting a beverage package before leaving for the cruise, but that feeling melted away very quickly.

I then did a walk around the ship to get reacquainted and ended up settling on lunch at Raffles (the buffet area). After lunch, it was back to the room to unpack and settle in before the Muster Drill at 4:00pm. After muster and a few glasses of sparkling wine on my balcony later, I attended the Spa Raffle (didn’t win anything this time) then relaxed in Galaxy of the Stars (the forward facing lounge) for sail away, it was so nice and quiet in the lounge (I think most people were either at dinner or at the sail away party on the pool deck). I was exhausted, so decided to actually call it a night.